Column: Thanksgiving Day in the Hurtgen Forest 75 Years Ago

The Pilot ^ | Nov 26, 2019 | William Shaw

[ZOOKER]

Anyone remember DITHF?

I remember he was discovered to be a fraud.

[SaxxonWoods]

“My Step-Grandfather was in Patton’s Third Army during that time.”

So was my dad, he had just arrived from the States. His outfit was in a village and the food truck was some blocks away. Since he was the new guy he got sent to pick up the Thanksgiving dinners for about 5 guys holed up in a house. The Germans were shelling the village about every 5 seconds. He would hear the shot, wait for the explosion and run up the street, ducking into a doorway after counting to 5. He got the dinners and brought them back. After that, he wasn’t the newbie any more.

On Christmas eve, his outfit (Brave Rifles), sang Christmas carols with the Germans who were trenched in 400 yards away. Christmas day was quiet.

[FLT-bird]

The woods were very thick and it was almost impossible for any close air support to tell where American and German positions were.

[Lurker]

I remember him.

LOL

L

[SaxxonWoods]

By the way, they may have been pretty close together. My dad ended up in Austria too, his outfit liberated the Death Camp at Ebensee on the last day of the War. The stories from that action were horrific, though it didn’t involve combat. The German guards ran away as the America tanks approached.

[SaxxonWoods]

The problem with all battle plans is that the enemy gets uncontrolled input.

[Captain Walker]

The problem with all battle plans is that the enemy gets uncontrolled input.

That's an excellent point.

[Allegra]

God bless your dad. They really were a great generation. ♥️

[zeestephen]

Re: "One of the mysteries of that battle..."

Decades ago, I read at great length on the 1944-45 invasion of Europe.

After the failure of Operation Market Garden (surprise Airborne attack on Holland), Eisenhower's final strategy evolved into a plan to keep the German army stressed and engaged at as many points as possible.

Tragically, that meant an old fashioned infantry assault on the Hurtgen Forest.

There is a good laugh line in "Band of Brothers" as a squad does recon in May 1945 in the forest surrounding an undiscovered concentration camp. One of the soldiers says this forest reminds him of Hurtgen. Another soldier sarcastically answers, "Yeah, it does, except we aren't freezing to death and the trees aren't exploding."

[oh8eleven]

My FIL was with the 5th Armored Division and was in the Hurtgen Forest battle.
I knew the man for almost 40 years and he never once discussed it with me ... and I'm a USMC combat vet.

[Sequoyah101]

The author says the 90 day Battle of Hurtgen Forest was little known. It was well known to me from a very early age. It was the battle seared in the memory of my late Dad and so many others of that time. The air bursts of artillery were the worst part for those who were there I was told. Trees shattered and splinters flew like spears as the eerily quite forest exploded without warning.

This Christmas season thousands of our troops face the end of careers unfinished, dreams of lifetimes ripped away, lives turned over and some will likely leave with nothing or very little of what they have earned even so close to the finish of careers served with not only honor but distinction. They will have been banished and shamed because they have stood on principle against a stupid, unnecessary jab that can’t even be called a vaccine.

They will need lots of help and encouragement to defeat the demons of doubt and criticism, self-deprecation and feelings of failure for their action that I think is one of continuing to serve to protect our Liberty. They have done so by not giving in to tyranny.

Don’t just remember them in your prayers, tell them you are proud of them and do what you can to help them pull their lives back together.

[Bull Snipe]

I have known hundreds of veterans of WW I, WW II, Korea & Vietnam. Those men that saw real combat in those wars, would almost never talk about it.

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] ...several combat patrols captured exhausted German soldiers willing to be taken prisoner and shipped out to the comfort and protection of one of 511 POW camps in America. The prisoners were brought to the company command post, where they were temporarily put to work as stretcher bearers hauling numerous American dead and wounded to evacuation vehicles. Before those on patrol returned to their foxholes, they were instructed to spread the word that every GI on the line would receive a hot turkey dinner. Most of the GI’s didn’t even realize it was Thanksgiving. Hoping to boost sagging morale, Mess Officer Howard Wilcox oversaw the roasting of hundreds of turkeys with all the trimmings. Frightened cooks and bakers unaccustomed to perilous front-line duty delivered them to every foxhole. [/snip]

Thanks Kartographer.

[SunkenCiv]

short excerpt from Sam Fuller's masterpiece:

The Big Red One (Reconstruction): Hurtgen Forest | January 12, 2021 | Byron Thomas

[DUMBGRUNT]

Good riddance to fake trash.

[Sequoyah101]

And I would add the battle for Monte Casino. Why was it no bypassed and starved out? it would have taken fewer troops than died to isolate it. The place had to be a miserable existence after it was bombed so heavily. Why were the german defenders not just left to rot in that festering mountain top mess? I would have bombed them randomly and heavily until they simply gave up.

Peleliu, I knew a Marine Aviator who was there. He was also at Guadalcanal and onward after that. He told me about it all. I asked where he went after Peleliu. He said they shipped him home, he said Peleliu finished him and he hung his head. He was nearly 90 by then, we both cried. When I would visit him at the home I always addressed him the same way, “How you doin’ today Marine!?” and he always responded by sitting up a little taller, stuck out his hand and gave a big grin. It was always good to see him. He went down fast and hard at the end.

Knowing when to leave or bypass is not even in the minds of some. Pity.

[deweyfrank]

Amen! They had the option of going around that forest in order to reach their objective, which I believe was a damn. The general ordered the troops to go through it. My Uncle was killed there on December 1st, 1944.

[sockmonkey]

*** Was expecting a ‘tale’ from “Deep in the Hurtgen Forest” poster ...***

We should have a reunion of our past Faux FReepers. That would be entertaining.

[Glad2bnuts]

That reference takes me back.. Was it the screen name DITHF? A lot of people bought into this poser if I recall.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I have visited the Hurtgen Forest and understand how it could be so nightmarish in the attack. Much of the ground is made of thin tiles of oil shale that get very slick when wet, and mortars and artillery shells were exploding in the treetops, resulting in deadly splinters raining down.

At the top of the mountain, the Germans were in strong defensive positions, and fighting uphill could indeed cost days for inches of gains. All in great cold and in the densest fog Europe had seen in over a hundred years.